sense. They're all against us. That's the way o't now. But never mind! Let them fling all the mud they like. Let the hand of every man be turned against me I'll win through in spite o' them.' As he concluded, he raised his eye wildly upwards when, suddenly, he observed Nancy had come into the room and was watching him from under her raised brows with a critical and faintly amused detachmcnt. At once his inflated bearing subsided and, as though caught in some unwarrantable act, he lowered his head while she spoke.
'What's all the noise about! I thought that somebody had taken a fit when I heard ye skirlin' like that,' and as he did not reply she turned to Nessie.
'What was the haverin' about? I hope he wasna flightin' at you, henny?'
With Nancy's advent into the kitchen a vague discomfort had possessed Nessie and now the skin of her face and neck, which had at first paled, flushed vividly. She answered confusedly, in a low voice:
'Oh! No. It was nothing nothing like that.'
'I'm glad to hear it,' replied Nancy. 'All that loud rantin' was enough to deafen a body. My ears are ringin' with it yet.' She glanced around disapprovingly and was about to retire when Brodie spoke, looking sideways at Nessie, and with an effort making his voice unconcerned.
'If you've finished your dinner, Nessie, run out to the front and wait for me. I'll not be a minute before I'm ready to go down the road with you.' Then, as his daughter arose, picked up her things from the sofa and went silently, uneasily, out of the room, he turned his still lowered head; looking upwards from under his brows, he regarded Nancy with a strong, absorbed intensity, and remarked:
'Sit down a minute, woman. I havena seen ye all the dinner hour. Ye're not to be angry at that tantrum. You should know my style by this time. I just forgot myself for a minute.'
As she sat down carelessly in the chair Nessie had vacated, his look drew her in with a possessive gratification which told more clearly than his words how she had grown upon him. So long without a fresh and vital woman in his house, so painfully encumbered by the old and useless body of his wife, this firm, white, young creature had entered into his blood like an increasing fever, and, by satisfying his fierce and thwarted instincts, had made him almost her slave.
'Ye didna give us any pudding, Nancy,' he continued, clumsily taking her hand in his huge grasp; 'will ye not give a man something to make up for't just a kiss, now. That'll not hurt ye, woman, and it's sweeter to me than any dish ye could make.'
'Tuts, Brodie! You're always on at the same thing,' she answered, with a toss of her head. 'Can ye not think o' something else for a change? Ye forget that you're a burly man and I'm but a wee bit lass that canna stand a deal of handlin'.' Although the words were admonitory she threw an inflection of seductiveness into them which made him tighten his clasp on her fingers, saying:
'I'm sorry if I've been rough with ye, lass. I didna mean it. Come and sit closer by me. Come on now!'
'What!' she skirled. 'In broad daylight! Ye maun be mad, Brodie, an’ after last night too, you great lump. Yell have me away to shadow No! No! Ye'll not wear me out like ye did the other.'
She looked little like a shadow, with her plump cheeks and solid form that had filled out more maturely from her six months of easy, indolent existence, and, as she regarded him with a substantial appreciation of his dependence upon her, she became aware that he was already losing his hold upon her, that the strange strength which had drawn her was being sapped by drink and her embraces, that he had now insufficient money to gratify her fancies, that he looked old, morose and unsuited to her. She had almost an inward contempt for him as she resumed slowly, calculatingly, 'I might gie ye a kiss, though. Just might, mind ye. If I did, what would ye give me for it?'
'Have I not given ye enough, woman?' he answered gloomily. 'Ye're housed and fed like myself and I've sold many a thing out this house to meet your humour. Don't ask for the impossible, Nancy.'
'Tuts, ye wad think ye had given me a fortune to hear ye,' she cried airily. 'As if I wasna worth it, either! I'm not askin' ye to sell ony more tie-pins or chains or pictures. I'm only wantin' a few shillings for my purse to go out and see my Aunt Annie in Overtoun tomorrow. Give us five shillin's and I'll give ye a kiss.'
His lower lip hung out sulkily.
'Are ye goin' out again to-morrow ? Ye're aye goin' out and learin' me. When will ye be back ?'
'Man! I believe ye would like to tie me to the leg o' this table. I'm not your slave; I'm only your housekeeper.' That was one for him, she thought, as she delivered the pert allusion to the fact that he had never offered to marry her. 'I'll not be away all night. I'll be back about ten o'clock or so. Give us the two half-crowns and if ye behave I'll maybe be kinder to ye than ye deserve.'
Under her compelling eyes he plunged his hand into his pocket, feeling, not the handful of sovereigns that had once reposed there, but some scanty coins, amongst which he searched for the sum she asked.
'Here ye are then,' he said eventually, handing her the money. 'I can ill afford it but ye well know I can deny ye nothing.'
She jumped up, holding the money triumphantly, and was about to slip away with it when he too got up and catching her by the arm, cried:
'What about your bargain! You're not forgettin' about that! Do ye not care for me at all?'
Immediately she composed her features, lifted up her face, opened her eyes wide at him with an ingenuous simplicity and murmured:
'I should think I do care for ye. Do ye think I would be here if I didna? Ye shouldna get such strange ideas in your head. That's the way mad folk talk. You'll be sayin' I'm goin' away to leave ye next.'
'No, I wouldna let ye do that,' he replied, crushing her fiercely against him. As he strained her small unresisting form against his own bulk, he felt that here was the anodyne to his wounded pride, forgetfulness of his humiliation, while she, turning her face sideways against his chest, looked away, thinking how ridiculous to her now was his infatuated credulity, how she wanted some one younger, less uncouth, less insatiable, some one who would marry her.
'Woman! What is it about ye that makes my heart like to burst when I have ye like this?' he said thickly, as he held her. 'I seem to lose count of everything but you. I would wish this to go on for ever.'
A faint smile creased her hidden features as she replied:
'And why should it not? Are ye beginnin' to get tired of me?”
'By God! You're fresher to me than ever ye were.' Then after a pause he suddenly exclaimed, 'It wasna just the money ye wanted, Nancy?'
She turned an indignant face to him, taking the opportunity to release herself.
'How can ye say such a thing? The very idea! Ill fling it back at ye in a minute if ye don't be quiet.'
'No! No!' he interposed hurriedly. 'I didna mean anything. You're welcome to it, and I'll bring ye something nice on Saturday.' This was the day upon which he drew his weekly wage and with the sudden realisation of his subordinate position, of the change in his life, his face darkened again, became older, and looking down, he said, 'Well, I better go then. Nessie's waitin' for me.' Suddenly a thought struck him. 'Where's that Matt to-day?' he demanded.
'I couldn't say.' She stifled a yawn, as though her lack of interest made her positively languid. 'He went out straight away after breakfast. He'll not be back now till supper, I expect.'
He gazed at her for a moment then said slowly:
'Well, I'll away myself, then. I'm off!'
'That's right,' she cried gaily. 'Off with ye and mind ye come straight back from the office. If ye have a single drink in ye when ye come in, I'll let ye have the teapot at your head.'
From under his heavy eyebrows he looked at her with an upward, shamefaced glance that sat ill upon his lined and sombre countenance; nodding his head to reassure her, he gave her arm a final squeeze and went out.
In the front courtyard, now thickly covered by sprouting weeds and denuded of the ridiculous ornament of the brass cannon which three months ago had been sold for its value as old metal - he found Nessie patiently awaiting him, supporting her unformed, drooping figure against the iron post of the front gate. At the sight of him she raised herself and, without a word, they set out together upon their walk to the point where their paths diverged at the end of Railway Road, where he would proceed to his work in the shipyard and she to hers at school. This daily pilgrimage had now become an established custom between Brodie and his daughter and during its course he had the practice of encouraging and admonishing her, of spurring her onward to achieve the brilliant success he desired; but to-day he did not speak, tapping along with his thick ash stick, his coat sagging upon him, his square hat, faded and unbrushed, thrust back in a painful caricature of his old-time arrogance, marching silently and apart, with an air of inward absorption which made it impossible for her to speak to him. Always, now, in the public gaze, he retired
